Merino Sheep
Human domestication of wild animals began with the dog more than 12,000 years ago and sheep and other livestock followed soon after. 15 …… As such, two separate varieties of the Spanish merino sheep emerged over hundreds of years. Settled merinos (estantes) had coarser wool in response to the harsher weather conditions they endured in winter, while the transient merinos (transhumantes) were moved to seasonal pastures throughout the year and so developed finer, softer wool.
16 …… Due to this, exporting merinos was banned, on pain of death, prior to 1765.
After this date, limited numbers of the renowned Escorial flock were sent to breeders in other countries and closely monitored. The royal family made gifts of their merino sheep to loyal subjects as rewards for valuable service and to seal diplomatic alliances.
The first sheep in Australia arrived with the First Fleet in 1788. 17 …… Intended as a source of meat, they were not well suited to the Australian environment and, like the Indian sheep that were later imported, did not produce good quality wool.
Captain Henry Waterhouse and Lieutenant William Kent brought the first flock of 26 merinos from the Cape of Good Hope to Port Jackson in 1797.
18 …… In 1789, the Prince had sent two rams and four ewes to the warmer Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope to be cared for by Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon.
Gordon returned the original breeding animals in 1791 when ordered to do so by the Dutch government, but kept their offspring. Gordon’s wife inherited the sheep after his death, and sold them for £4 per head to Waterhouse and Kent.
The flock was divided between the HMS Reliance and the storeship Supply for the journey back to Australia. 19 ……
Captain John Macarthur, an officer in the NSW Corps, offered Captain Waterhouse 15 guineas a head for the surviving sheep on the condition he could buy them all.
Waterhouse refused the offer and grazed his sheep at The Vineyard, a 140-acre property on the Parramatta River he had bought on his return from the Cape. He kept his merino flock segregated, allowing them to breed only with one another.
20 …… When Waterhouse returned to England in 1800, William Cox bought most of the flock from him, including several of the original sheep from the Cape. The remainder went to Macarthur.